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Posts Tagged: Situational Awareness

Get Around

By in A Firefighters Own Worst Enemy at March 7, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Here are some more pictures from my A Shift buddies, Jim, Bob and Dave at Florissant Valley Fire Protection District.  These photos show the challenges of just getting into some of our buildings.  It's a lot easier to get a good look at the… Read More »

Challenges Everywhere—-But We Have to Get In to See Them

By in A Firefighters Own Worst Enemy at February 17, 2012 at 8:10 pm
Hey, here are some pictures sent to me by a Brother who is going out the DOING the job. The whole job.  He and his crew are getting out and checking on things.  Bob gets IT and thanks for the pics.  These are in his still area and these ar… Read More »

NFFF/CFD Video—> Make this a MUST WATCH FOR ALL FIREFIGHTERS. Perfect training.

By in Fire Daily at December 28, 2011 at 11:07 am
“If you think you’ve got some good reason for not wearing this or for not doing things the right way , write it down. Because I need to read that to your widow. Because I’m not going to know what to say. You say it for me.” Read More »

Anatomy of a Basement Fire

By in A Firefighters Own Worst Enemy at December 25, 2011 at 7:31 am
Here is a short video that you can use for a drill or training night. Feel free to use however you like. This is from a recent basement fire and what was looked for and what was done. There are some considerations to think about. This is not everything for all basement fires. Just a simple tutorial. Feel free to add your experience and ideas to this video. Read More »

KEEPING YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR A**

By in Iron Firemen at December 7, 2011 at 12:06 am
With budget cuts, under staffing, station closures, brown outs etc, the Fire Service is struggling enough. The sad thing here is that most of those whom we serve are in worse shape than we are. DO NOT TAKE AWAY FROM THESE FOLKS ....don't make their situation worse .... most have nothing else to give / loose Read More »

The Purpose

By in A Firefighters Own Worst Enemy at December 5, 2011 at 10:37 pm
I also like to practice getting to my pockets. Whether I actually need to or not, if I get into a position that I would need them, I have practiced that. I will be confident that I can reach my wire cutters in a tight spot. The same with my flash light; can I turn it on? Do I have an extra one I can get to? Read More »

Remembrance: Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse Fire and the Worcester Six

By in Command Safety at December 3, 2011 at 7:47 am
Remembrance: Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse Fire and the Worcester Six Read More »

The Worcester 6

By in The Company Officer at December 3, 2011 at 10:33 am
May the Worcester 6 always be remembered; “Fallen Heroes Never Forgotten.” Learning from the past is your responsibility. Read More »

Fireground Dynamics: Smoke Explosion during Interior Operations

By in Command Safety at October 8, 2011 at 11:33 am
Reading the Smoke, Fire Dynamics and Smoke Explosion Read More »

Reading the Building: Just a Glimpse

By in A Firefighters Own Worst Enemy at September 29, 2011 at 4:20 pm
As you may know, I am playing with a different format. It wont be all of the time for every blog, but something a little different. So, here is one based off an article that I did. Please be patient as I work with this. Hopefully, it will enrich your blog reading. Read More »

A bad day for Randy gets worse … we could both be dead!

By in Iron Firemen at September 6, 2011 at 7:10 pm
I arrived at the station at about 06:30am this morning.  As I always do, I went to my gear locker, got my PPE and placed it by the rig. Everything has it's place and something caught my eye ... something out of place. It was a face piece ... an SCBA… Read More »

Tabletop Training for the Weekend “Rubbish Fire”

By in Command Safety at August 27, 2011 at 9:58 am
This special weekend edition of Ten Minutes in the Street TM is being offered on CommandSafety.com and is taking advantage of a training video produced by the LAFD in 2009 that involved a basis initial dispatch to a report of a rubbish fire that escalates into two structure fires and resulted in multiple alarm operations. Challenge your personnel and discuss and tabletop the incident scenario based on your operational and orgnizational profile and resources. Read More »

Ten Minutes in the Street: The First-Due

By in The Company Officer at August 25, 2011 at 2:44 pm
This edition of Ten Minutes in the Street TM is looking at the considerations for the first-due engine company upon arrival at a well involved single family residential house fire. Arrivals and subsequent deployments during night time periods pose ever increasing challenges to arriving officers in the ability to ascertain and recognize factors that will have a direct or ancillary affect in the developing incident action plan, tactics and task assignments. Read More »

One Aspect of the 360

By in A Firefighters Own Worst Enemy at August 21, 2011 at 9:28 pm
This post is going to focus on some basement indicators.  The pictures shown below are just examples of things you might see when making the round.  Keep in mind that at night you need to take a hand light.  For example, the wood behind the basement windows below may not be noticeable with shining a light in the windows on the way around. Read More »

Are We Missing The Target?

By in Backstep Firefighter at July 18, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Until we understand our enemy, the fire and the building we operate in, how can we expect not to get in trouble? Read More »

Scopes of Situational Awareness

By in Backstep Firefighter at July 6, 2011 at 6:14 pm
It is difficult even to expect these guys to be aware the situation that surrounds their operation if they are not competent and confident in the duty they are performing. Read More »

Texas Captain; 2010 LODD Report Issued with Lessons Learned

By in The Company Officer at July 4, 2011 at 10:45 pm
Captain Araguz, a 30 year old, 11-year veteran of the Wharton Volunteer Fire Department made Captain in 2009. Read More »

Remembering Hackensack and Gloucester

By in Command Safety at July 1, 2011 at 4:53 am
As we approach the July 4th holiday period, two significant LODD incidents previously occurred during this time frame Read More »

Supervisor cleared on all charges in Deutsche Bank Building Fire that killed 2 FDNY Firefighters

By in Command Safety at June 28, 2011 at 6:35 pm
[caption id="attachment_2874" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="AP Photo"][/caption]   [caption id="attachment_2875" align="aligncenter" width="379" caption="5-5-5-5 August 18, 2007"][/caption] Published reports are being stating that th… Read More »

Firefighter Killed In Roof Collapse at Church Fire

By in Command Safety at June 15, 2011 at 7:17 pm
[caption id="attachment_2631" align="aligncenter" width="349" caption="Tabernacle of Praise church in Muncie, Indiana burns while a firefighter jumps out of a broken window. .(Maria Strauss/The Star Press) "][/caption] A major fire took command o… Read More »

The Door to Nowhere

By in A Firefighters Own Worst Enemy at June 12, 2011 at 8:56 pm
We have all been taught to control the door. I have watched countless firefighters try to kick in doors, bulldoze their way through them along with every other tactic that does not include a set of irons.  Here is one reason why control in forcing d… Read More »

Stairway Collapse and Mayday in Chicagoland

By in Command Safety at May 30, 2011 at 6:11 am
                                                  A fire in single family residential occupancy in Chicago's West Humboldt Park section on May 29th produced these dramatic occurrences: Serious injury to … Read More »

What’s Your Take?

By in A Firefighters Own Worst Enemy at May 12, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Here a few pictures from a recent trip to Nashivelle, TN.  We were walking back from LP Field after the half-marathon and this building was right next to the pedestrian bridge we were on.  I stopped and started taking pictures and thinking. Of course I got behind and my wife had to explain to everyone else in the group that I was a just a wierd firefighter who does this all of the time. Read More »

Another Near Miss Floor Collapse

By in Command Safety at May 5, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Floor compromise and isolated shift resulted in minor firefighter injuries and a near miss event in San Diego (CA) Read More »

Social Media: The ‘Why’ Needs to Come First (Part 2)

By in High Performance EMS at April 18, 2011 at 03:08
In the first half of this two-part blog, I discussed the outwardly directed reasons for using social media.  Those are the reasons that relate to communicating a message from your organization to a specific audience.  Just like older media forms, socia… Read More »

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